PreTeena by Allison Barrows for January 27, 2013

If you want to use a wierd, funky name, either use it as a nickname…or get a puppy.

Oh it’s not so bad. People might think it’s a nickname for Marla or Marlene. Most will not ask what it’s short for.

Eh, I could see “Marley” as a girl’s name…like “Kelly” for a boy and such. It could be much worse.

I think I like it. A little different, but not outlandish.

I used to know a girl named Marley. Started out as a tomboy, but when she blossomed, she BLOSSOMED…hotter than a peppered sprout, but still could hold her own against some of the (in their own minds) baddest jocks in school – yet still a lady when ladylike was called for. And she was RESPECTED.

I like that Teena is literate enough to associate the name with Dickens.